Heavy Snow — Gloucester, New Jersey

2011-01-11 to 2011-01-12 · Gloucester, New Jersey

Wider weather episode

Heavy snow fell across most of New Jersey from the early evening of the 11th through the early morning on the 12th. Snowfall averaged 1 to 4 inches in the southeast part of the state where some rain, freezing rain and sleet occurred and 5 to 9 inches across the rest of the state. One traffic related fatality occurred during the storm in Camden County. In the southeast part of the state a patchy light wintry mix started during the afternoon of the 11th, mainly rain along the coast. As precipitation intensity increased, it changed over to snow during the evening. It took most of the evening closer to the coast. The snow ended during the early morning on the 12th. Ice accretions prior to the change to snow were mainly traces. In the southwest part of the state, snow began early in the evening on the 11th, fell heavy at times during the second half of the evening and ended around 3 a.m. EST on the 12th. Across the central and northern part of the state, snow began during the first half of the evening on the 11th (there was some freezing rain at the start in Ocean and Monmouth Counties). The snow fell at its heaviest a couple of hours on either side of Midnight EST and ended between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. EST on the 12th.

A 53-year-old man was killed in a two-car crash during the storm shortly before 9 p.m. EST on the 11th Tuesday night. He was driving a Hyundai southbound on Sicklerville Road in Gloucester Township (Camden County) when he crossed over to the northbound side of the roadway and struck a Chevrolet Tahoe head on near the Freeway Golf Course. He died from his injuries later that night. The other driver suffered minor injuries. On the 12th, a 47-year-old man in New Brunswick (Middlesex County) was accidentally crushed to death by a raised flatbed truck while clearing the snow off of it.

Many schools in the Philadelphia suburbs and central New Jersey closed on the 12th. New Jersey government offices also opened two hours late. Although major roadways were cleared by the morning rush, slippery patches remained on smaller roadways. Fender benders were reported, mainly in the northern part of the state. The South Brunswick (Middlesex County) police department responded to 50 calls and 12 accidents. Given the amount of snow, overall many considered it a perfect storm as its timing occurred after the evening rush on the 11th and ended before the start of the morning commute on the 12th. In southwest New Jersey, PATCO commuter rail lines operated on a snow schedule, with trains running every six to ten minutes but with no express trains. New Jersey Transit trains, buses and light rail also were running on the 12th, but some buses fell behind schedule because of road conditions.

Representative snowfall included 9.3 inches in Red Bank and Holmdel (Monmouth County), 8.5 inches in Hopelawn (Middlesex County), Belle Mead (Somerset County) and Green Pond (Morris County), 8.3 inches in Yardville (Mercer County) and Cream Ridge (Monmouth County), 8.0 inches in Flemington (Hunterdon County) and Chatham (Morris County), 7.6 inches in Califon (Hunterdon County), 7.5 inches in Maple Shade (Burlington County), 7.1 inches in Lacey (Ocean County), 7.0 inches in Trenton (Mercer County), Kingwood (Hunterdon County), Wantage (Sussex County), Butler (Morris County) and New Brunswick (Middlesex County), 6.9 inches in Stewartsville (Warren County), 6.6 inches in Hackettstown (Warren County), 6.5 inches in Sussex (Suseex County) and Verga (Gloucester County), 6.3 inches in Mount Laurel (Burlington County) and Pottersville (Somerset County), 5.8 inches in Voorhees (Camden County) and Mantua (Gloucester County), 5.2 inches in Lindenwold (Camden County), 5.0 inches in Tabernacle (Burlington County), Toms River (Ocean County), Woodstown (Salem County) and Seabrook (Cumberland County), 4.0 inches in Hammonton (Atlantic County), Quinton (Salem County) and Millville (Cumberland County), 2.5 inches in Erma (Cape May County) and Barnegat (Ocean County), 1.5 inches at the Atlantic City International Airport and Cape May (Cape May County) and 0.5 inches in Margate (Atlantic County).

The winter storm was caused by a low pressure system that formed in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico on the 9th. It moved east across the northern Gulf of Mexico and passed across northern Florida overnight on the 10th and turned to the northeast. At 7 a.m. EST on the 11th, the low pressure system was located just off the southern North Carolina coast, near Wilmington. It continued to move northeast and at 7 p.m. EST on the 11th was located just east of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. At 1 a.m. EST on the 12th it started to intensify rapidly and was about 100 miles east of Atlantic City, New Jersey. At 7 a.m. EST on the 12th, the low pressure system (now 986 millibars and a 24 millibar drop in 12 hours) reached southeast Massachusetts. Its later intensification than the Boxing Day Blizzard on December 26th and overall faster movement kept nearly all snowfall amounts below 10 inches.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 276435. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.